Challenge 3-The Colosseum, Italy
OVER SIX MILLION VISITORS IN 2016 (New York Times)
It has always been my dream to visit the Colosseum-The home of the gladiators and hunting shows, the place where people were executed, one of Italy’s most favorite and loved sites.
1. User Type-Young Couple 20–40 y/o (2)
As a user type, I chose a young couple (maybe myself and my husband? :) and their destination-The Colosseum, Italy. My young couple saved enough money to make their dream come true. Since it’s my young couple’s dream, they will do whatever it takes to go on that trip, they will continue to save money and will search for the best traveling offer they can find.
2. Research
Here is some important information for my young couple trip:
- Nearest airport: The nearest airport to the Colosseum is Rome Ciampino Airport(CIA). However, there are better options for getting to the Colosseum. Leonardo Express operates a train from Fiumicino Aeroporto to Roma Termini every 30 minutes. The tickets cost 14€ and the journey takes 32 minutes. Alternatively, Di Fonzo operates a bus from Pescara to Rome hourly. The tickets cost 15€ and the journey takes 2h 30m.
- Currency exchange: No need, my couple lives in Berlin and Italy is a part of the European Union so the currency is Euro.
- Medical needs: No need.
- Wardrobe recommendations: My couple wants to travel in summer so short clothes, nice dresses, good sports shoes for walking, some hats, and sunscreen will work.
- Days needed to visit the attraction: 1 day.
Benchmarking
For my couple’s trip, I need to compare three different travel apps and choose the one that gives the best offer for my user.
“It’s time Conduct Usability Heuristics evaluation with Nielsen’s Principles. and compare between kayak, Skyscanner, and Trip Advisor”
Here is a summary of those Principles:
And my compare results:
I chose the Skyscanner app. The second one was Tripadvisor which was filled with a lot of unnecessary information or too much information.
Testing
It’s time to test!
I chose a group of 3 people that suits my user's characteristics. The first part of the test was to take a look in the app for 5 seconds and tell me what is the user first impression and what he remembers (of course without the user knowing of this trick). Then I asked, do you know where the search button is? and the last question was: how was the design overall?
The users remembered that there was an option to search for a flight but the button was too small. also, they remembered a big map that shows current information about where it is possible to travel (during COVID-19 time). All my users are familiar with Skyscanner and approved that they use the app whenever they want to plan a trip.
Then, I asked the users to do the following tasks:
- Search for a flight to Rome from Berlin.
- Check prices.
- Find a hotel/hostel that suits you best.
My group searched for the flight quite easily. They said that while searching, the results are coming up and that’s a big plus. There was also a big verity of airlines and tickets combinations, for example: Booking the ongoing route with EasyJet and the outgoing route with RyanAir. The prices were very clear to all users. They also liked that the app shows the price per person and the group overall price. Regarding hotel booking, the users did not know that it is even possible to book hotels with Skyscanner, and they tried to book a hotel near the Colosseum and they got confused. Eventually, they prefer to book the hotel with Booking.com
Redesign
I chose to change the search experience and made the search tab that it will appear as a big search bar. The next page will have the option to choose dates and the last page is trip results. The 3 buttons at the bottom of the screen are Hotels, Explore, and Car Hire. Also, on every page, I put the user account logo so it will be easier to go back and save my searches.
To Sum It Up
Making changes in an existing app was very exciting! I enjoyed putting my point of view on this app and refresh some of its looks.
